Indian MUSLIMS : how to vote ?

Indian Muslims are today at a crossroad. They may vote for the same parties that have promised them heaven and given them nothing in return, or they can show that they are Indian first and Muslims second. They should look towards the USA, instead of hating them : there, people of Mexican, Korean, African origins, Christians, Muslims or Buddhists, feel that they are First Americans.

The question that Indian Muslims should ask themselves today is simple: “who are we” ? Amongst the 150 millions of Muslims in India, only a tiny percentage descends from the Turks, Afghans, or Iranians who invaded India. The majority of them are converted Muslims. And converted how ? By terror, coercion, force, bloodshed. The ancestors of today’s Indian Muslims are probably those who suffered the most from the Arab and Muslim invasions. Those Hindus and Sikhs who chose not to convert, took refuge in their faith, fought together and kept their pride and honor. The first two generations of those who converted must have endured hell: for they certainly did not convert out of conviction, but because they had no choice: their daughters and wives were raped, sons taken into slavery, parents killed. It is sad today that their descendants have sometimes made theirs the intolerant cry of Islam.

It is true that many Indian Muslims were Hindu intouchables. Marxists would like us to believe that they converted because they thought that they would access the more egalitarian society of Islam. What rubbish! Does one think in that way in time of war, terror and tears ? Do today’s Hindu lower castes convert to Islam when there is no more violent coercion? More likely, the Intouchables were the most vulnerable, the least apt to defend themselves; they had neither the faith of the brahmins, nor the riches of the vaishiyas, nor the military skill of the kshatriyas.

Do Indian Muslims understand that they were part of the richest, most advanced, most tolerant and generous civilization of ancient times. That their culture was so advanced that it had spread all over the world ?Do they realize that more and more archeological an historical discoveries are pointing out that the genocide of Hindus by Muslim invaders is without parallel. The conquest of Afghanistan in the year 1000, was followed by the annihilation of the entire Hindu population there; indeed, the region is still called Hindu Kush, ‘Hindu slaughter’. The Bahmani sultans in central India, made it a rule to kill 100.000 Hindus a year. In 1399, Teimur killed 100.000 Hindus in a single day. Professor K.S. Lal has estimated that the Hindu population decreased by 😯 million between the year 1000 and 1525, probably the biggest holocaust in history. Surely, many of present day Indian Muslims’ ancestors must have been among those slaughtered.

Islam cannot be wished away. As Sri Aurobindo said “Mahomed’s mission was necessary, else we might have ended by thinking, in the exaggeration of our efforts at self-purification, that earth was meant only for the monk and the city created as a vestibule for the desert”…. . Thus Indian Muslims have to keep their faith and any attempt by Hindus to convert them back is not only futile but counterproductive. But the question to be asked to them is: “what kind of Islam do you want to practice ? An Islam which looks westwards, towards a foreign city, the Mecca, swears by a Scripture, the Koran, which is not only not relevant to India, but which was meant for people living 1500 years ago, in a language which is not Indian ? Or do they want to practice an Islam which is “Indianized”, which accepts the reality of other Gods, as Hinduism and Buddhism accept that there have been other avatars than Ram or Buddha.

Do India Muslims want to worship Babar, a man who destroyed everything which was good, beautiful and holy and lived by the power of violence, or do they want to imbibe the qualities of Ram, who believed in the equality of all, who gave-up all riches and honors of the world because he thought his bother deserved the throne more than him ?

Whatever the West says, which is obsessed with China, India, a vibrant, English speaking, pro-western democracy is going to become the superpower of the 21st century. Do Indian Muslims want to participate in that great adventure ? Do they want to feel that they are part of India, that they are Indians ?

Nowadays it is politically not correct to say anything against Islam. You are immediately labeled anti-Muslim and dismissed as a “rightist”. No matter if you are only reporting the fact that there is a real problem with Islam in South Asia: that India is surrounded by fundamentalists sates: Afghanistan and Pakistan, while more moderates like Bangladesh, tend to close an eye to anti-Indian activities; that Indian Muslims sometimes tend to put their religion before their country; and that Kashmiris, far from being the persecuted that the Foreign Press likes to portray, are actually paying the price for having allowed Afghan and Pakistani Sunnis radicalize what used to be a more gentle and tolerant Islam and left their Hindu brothers and sisters being butchered and chased away from their ancestral land.

Thus the question has to be asked again: do Indian Muslims want to be like Babar or like Ram. This choice will shape their future for generations to come.

Brilliantly expressed! The Indian Muslims are both – the victims of History and the embedded agents of change. The question is what do they change: (a) the nature of an anachronistic Islam and show the world a flavor of Indian Islam or (b) be agents to wipe out the existence of Sanatana Dharma in the world?

For this a lot will depend NOT upon what the Indian Muslim does and their local leadership. What kind of leadership emerges from within their ranks – NOT influenced by foreign patrons but the leadership that emerges to help transform the nature of Islam in a multicultural world and make it a model to soothe even wounds being created in the middle east.

And a lot will depend also upon what the Hindu does. The Hindus need to become much more aware of the responsibility on their shoulders. Our ancestors have done a commendable job to protect Dharma through a millenium of assault. It is upto the future generations to understand the true nature of Dharma and ensure it continues to remain available as the platform for the evolution of consciousness in this planet in all its glory – be it in the philosophy, the art, the music, the languages, the literature and the codified way of living that harmonizes with the environment and technology.

Irrespective of the history on how people got converted into buddism, taoism, islam or christianity, people if they wish to convert to hinduism too ( i have seem burqha clad family at Tirupathi and another muslim couple at shirdi a few years ago), it is totally people’s choice atleast from the past couple of decades if i am not wrong. And Islam is not at all a force on even practicing muslims. They clearly need to choose to obey or disobey. Ofcourse when it comes to Ram, Ram is considered a human ruler by many south indians, and not God, because we believe God cannot be flawless, and from a woman perspective, blame Sita for all the wrong reasons and chose kingdom against an innocent lone woman who was pregnant with twins.
On other note, Muslims or true muslims rather, do not worship Babar. He was one of the many invadors thats all. Even if people convert others forcefully, of what benefit will it be to them or to the converts, rather than rising of revolt and disharmony? If by force, then somebody that converts will get back to what they were or what they prefer once the force is off them.
Islam cannot be forced, and we infact have so many deviant muslims too who follow the worshipping of the dead people, building tombs, prefering worships there rather than a plain simple mosque and so on; but yes, we have en masse being forcibly converted to christianity. You might want to analysis or procure some statistics on how economically poor people are lured for money and ‘gifts’ from foreign countries if they convert to christianity and continue attending their sunday classes no matter what. You also might want to look at muslim coverts who convert on their will, with a fair understanding set forefront that converting to a muslim will shell out money from their own pockets as obligatory charity which is one of islamic pillars. So what do people who wish to convert for worldly benefit prefer? Christianity ofcourse, which makes their life easy, with free money and life benefits.
My view, Babar, British or any invador for that matter, those times and that era is gone. People are more focussed, educated and are far capable of choosing their lifestyles. How many hindus have adapted to western culture and lifestyle, yet nobody utters a word about it? Why? because they do it out of there own free will? How many children from core Brahmin families really are reciting Vedas? or for that matter, do Hindus really know what each vedic book contains? Which book talks about nirguna Brahmin, which book talks abotu seasons, and so on? It is all influence of surroundings, agreed, but our India even today is not so muslim conversion friendly or Hindu convertion friendly too, for that matter. But is it christian conversion friendly? You know the answer. My intent here was purely to highlight that we are much advanced now, so this cross religious barriers should end in some way which is healthy, because we are secular, as Indians.